Where was it promised? A quick search of Bugzilla didn't find a functionality request bug report for it.

I assume you're aware that Mozilla stopped development about 2 years ago (just adds security/stability fixes and provides infrastructure) and all new features and bug fixes are now added by the community. They seem pretty tied up with bug fixes and reworking some hard to maintain components such as the MIME support.

Have you tried the Timestamp add-on at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/timestamp/ ? The version at AMO doesn't support versions later than 2.0 so you'd need to do something like install the disable add-on compatibility checks add-on at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/checkcompatibility/?src=ss, and ignore the warning message about Timestamp not being compatible. However, the author has a version at http://extensions.sanjer.nl/?page=tb_ts that supposedly supports up to Thunderbird 11.9.x so it should be "compatible by default as it supports version 5 or later and is not a binary add-on like Lightning or Enigmail.

"For Thunderbird use the context menu (right click popup) in the compose window, Ctrl+Shift+T or "Options | Insert timestamp" to inserts the date/time into a message"

Yes, indeed. Having been Beta and UI testing, and full time user as well, of the venerable Thunderbird for a great many years since v 0.9, numerous "we need this strongly considered" frequently included insertion of time / date into the message body.

However, as it obviously was never considered a "bug", Bugzilla may not have been used as a delivery vehicle.

Now that Thunderbird is version 31, it would still be a fine, used-more-then-one-thinks and useful addition, perhaps even overdue.

Built-in, NOT having to depend on "yet another" add-in or code.

How can we assist in making this happen as soon as prudently possible ?

How can we perhaps gently snowball this request?

Would a survey asking about this option, or including it in a group-of-options survey be of help?

Joe Rotello / WindowGroup / Knoxville, TN / USA Skype: joerotello

Every message sent is timestamped in the header when it is sent.

Though if you need a date/time stamp in the body, there are a lot of keyboard macro utilities or text expanders out there that can easily do this for you.

Chances are if you need a way to insert the current time and date into emails, you probably need it in other programs as well.

http://lifehacker.com/5611210/how-to-use-text-expansion-to-save-yourself-hours-of-typing-every-day

If installing the TimeStamp add-on is unacceptable to you see if there is a related add-on that you already use that you might be able to convince the author to add your feature. The MailMerge add-on for example has lots of variables that one can enter in the message body that get automatically replaced with the appropriate data when you merge a message.